How Users Find Information in 2025: Search Engines vs. AI Chatbots

In the last few months, I’ve had the same conversation with clients, colleagues, and fellow marketers more times than I can count. It usually starts like this:

“Hey, is SEO still worth it now that everyone’s using AI?”

It’s a fair question. In 2025, AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Felo AI aren’t just fringe tools — they’re quickly becoming part of people’s daily search habits. The way users find answers is evolving, and naturally, marketers are wondering if traditional SEO is becoming obsolete.

The short answer? No, SEO isn’t dead. But it’s changing.

So let’s not panic but instead analyze what’s really happening. Here’s why SEO still matters (a lot) and how to adjust your strategy without throwing out everything you’ve built.

As of Q2 2025, Cisco Umbrella’s DNS rankings show a very noticeable drop in traffic to suggestqueries.google.com. That’s the endpoint powering Google’s autocomplete feature, a small but primary cog in the search engine machine. 

In simple terms, if fewer people are triggering that endpoint, it probably means fewer people are typing into a search bar and picking from suggestions. 

Naturally, chatbot traffic is rising as search engines’ traffic falls. Tools like Perplexity and ChatGPT are seeing year-over-year traffic growth north of 120%. These platforms are faster, more direct, and for many use cases just “good enough.”

It’s no longer just Gen Z asking ChatGPT to write code or summarize PDFs. It’s your average user asking what the best standing desk is, how to cook lentils, or whether they should visit Lisbon or Porto. And instead of getting a list of ten blue links, they get one confident, conversational answer in seconds.

How do you prefer to search and browse: Search Engines vs. AI Chatbots?

So, does all that mean SEO is now dead? No, SEO isn’t dead. But it’s now competing with a new layer of user behavior that didn’t exist several years ago.

Here’s the nuance that rarely makes it into the headlines: search traffic is still much, much bigger than chatbot traffic. In March 2025, search engines saw an estimated 1.86 trillion monthly visits. AI chatbots? Around 55 billion. The gap might be shrinking, but it’s still a massive gap.

So, how are AI chatbots stealing search engines’ traffic if they aren’t as popular? By answering low-intent and timely queries like:

• What’s the capital of Uzbekistan?
• How do I calculate CAGR?
• Explain taxes to a 10-year-old.

These are the types of queries where users don’t want options — they want answers. Chatbots do that better than Google ever did.

But that’s not all search. High-intent, research, and commercial queries are still in high demand when it comes to traditional search engines. AI hasn’t replaced the experience of scanning SERPs, opening a few tabs, comparing features, reading reviews, and making a decision. And in many cases, especially with products and services, it can’t (yet).

This means your SEO strategy in 2025 needs to be two things:

1. Smarter about the kinds of queries you’re targeting, and
2. Aligned with how AI platforms are indexing and surfacing content, because yes, they’re scraping your site too.

Let’s cut to the chase: here’s what I’ve seen working with clients in e-commerce, SaaS, and publishing in the past six months.

Google’s been saying it for years, but now it matters more than ever: content that’s structured, logically organized, and semantically rich gets more traction, not just in Google, but in AI-driven discovery tools too.

That means:

• Headings that reflect the question intent
• Paragraphs that directly answer those questions
• Internal links that reinforce topical relevance
• Schema markup that makes it easier to parse (FAQ, HowTo, Product)

Why does this matter? Because AI tools are essentially building a web of understanding from your content. The clearer and more helpful your content is, the more likely you are to be cited in AI answers — even if the traffic doesn’t come through traditional clicks.

In an era of hallucinated answers and spammy AI content, users are looking for trust again.

More people are asking, “Where did this information come from?” — and when they see your name, it needs to mean something. This is where brand authority comes into play. Not just domain rating or backlinks, but real-world associations: author bios, consistent branding, media mentions, original research.

E-E-A-T isn’t just Google policy anymore. It’s becoming the heuristic by which all AI systems sort the credible from the questionable. If you want to be included in Perplexity or ChatGPT-generated answers, your brand needs to show up as reputable, consistent, and reliable across the board.

For the first time in over a decade, Google’s market share in search has dipped below 90%. It’s not a collapse, but it is a crack.

Marketers are finally waking up to the idea that Bing matters. So do privacy-centric engines like DuckDuckGo. And we can’t ignore the quiet rise of platforms like Perplexity, which now offer ad slots and brand citations.

We’re starting to test Perplexity Ads for some clients, and early results are promising, especially for top-of-funnel discovery. The targeting isn’t perfect, but the intent is high. People asking AI, “What’s the best XYZ?” are very close to buying; they just need to see your name appear in the right context.

This is something no one really wants to say out loud, but: your clickthrough rates will go down, even if your rankings don’t.

AI is creating a good experience before users can even reach your site. Chatbots summarize, paraphrase, and often answer without ever needing to link. Google’s AI Overviews (formerly SGE) do the same.

That means the traditional SEO KPI of clicks from search is becoming less useful as a north star.

Instead, we need to start tracking:

• Brand mentions in AI-generated responses
• Citation frequency in tools like Perplexity and You.com
• Zero-click engagement (e.g., featured snippets, voice search responses)
• Post-view behavior (Are users who do click staying longer? Buying more?)

We’re entering an influence > traffic phase. You might get fewer sessions but more qualified ones. It’s counterintuitive, but it can be better for business. That is, if you’re measuring the right things.

Let’s not sugarcoat it: SEO in 2025 is more complicated than ever. It’s slower, more competitive, and increasingly abstracted from the user journey.

But it’s still one of the few marketing channels that:

• Compounds over time
• Builds brand equity
• Drives high-intent discovery
• Works across multiple platforms (not just Google)

What’s changed is how you define success — and how you design your content to work across an ecosystem of search engines and AI tools.

If you’re still creating SEO content like it’s 2017 — keyword-heavy, link-chasing, thin “ultimate guides” — then yes, SEO is probably a bad investment for you in 2025.

But if you’re building a site that:

• Answers real user questions
• Demonstrates expertise
• Builds brand trust
• Plays well with both human readers and machine summarizers…

The rise of AI doesn’t mean search is going away. It means discovery is changing. The lines are blurrier, and the user journey is messier.  And of course, pretending that’s not happening is a great way to waste your small business’s budget.

As an SEO specialist, you must remember that users still want to learn, compare, decide, and buy. They’re just doing it in more ways, across more platforms, and with different expectations.

Ready to adjust your SEO strategy for the AI era?

Let’s talk. Whether you need a full strategy audit, a revamp of your content architecture, or just a second opinion on your direction, I’d be happy to help.